I.M. Popp, G. Seemann, and O. Dössel (Germany)
virtual electrode, defibrillation, transmembrane voltage
Defibrillation of the heart is used widely to resuscitate pa tients with fibrillating heart, being the most effective ther apy for this otherwise lethal disturbance of cardiac rhythm. The basic electrophysilogical mechanisms of this proce dure are not well understood. The aim of this work is to in vestigate the conditions that influence the so called virtual electrodes that appear in human ventricular myocardium and also their effects. A two-dimensional and a three dimensional computer model of cardiac tissue is used. For this the temporal evolution of the transmembrane voltage is studied until the entire tissue is repolarized, the needed time interval being around 400 ms.
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